Multi-phase, Multi-temperature, and Complex (MMC2025) will be an exciting workshop exploring how feedback mechanisms -particularly AGN and stellar feedback - shape galaxy and large-scale structure evolution. Despite progress, key challenges remain in understanding the relation between gas content and star formation of galaxies in low-mass halos and the properties of the circum-galactic medium (CGM). This event will bring together experts to discuss the latest observations and simulations, highlighting the multi-phase nature of the CGM, its interaction with feedback processes, and insights from X-ray, SZ, IFU, radio, and submillimeter data. Don’t miss this opportunity to bridge theory and observation in the quest to understand cosmic structure formation. Deadline for abstract submission: 30 April 2025.
ESO received 913 valid proposals for observations in Period 116 (1 October 2025 - 30 April 2026, with a duration of 7 months). The deadline for proposal submission was 20 March 2025. On the VLT, the most demanded ESO instrument was MUSE with a request of 3034.5 hours (i.e. 379.3 nights of an average duration of 8 hours), followed by ESPRESSO with 2594.8 hours, and XSHOOTER with 2221.2 hours. HARPS/NIRPS on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope was the most demanded instrument at La Silla, with a combined request of 3277 hours. The plot above shows the number pf ESO Proposals/PIs since Period 62. The fluctuations in the recent years are due to Large Programmes being offered only in even periods since P106. The peak in P106 is due to the extension of the proposal submission deadline during the pandemic.
After more than 31 years of work at ESO, Bruno Leibundgut will retire at the end of April 2025. Given the strong engagement between Bruno and the astronomical community, this will not only be a change for himself, but also for the ESO and the community.
Registration and abstract submission for the ESO workshop "Planetary Formation and Exoplanets in the ELT era”, to be held at ESO Garching, 17-21 November 2025, is now open. The workshop will discuss the understanding of how giant and rocky planets form and evolve, their internal structure and that of their atmosphere, in the context of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).
The Astropy Project is running its first user survey! With over 50,000 users, 280,000 lines of code written by more than 450 contributors, and over 13,000 unique citations across its three papers, the Astropy Collaboration is made possible by hundreds of volunteer contributors worldwide. For more than a decade, ESO researchers have contributed direct and indirect development efforts to the core astropy package and critical packages in the Astropy ecosystem such as astroquery, advancing software tools for astronomy from the visible and infrared to the sub-mm. The first user survey is now being run to better understand how Astropy and its community of scientific software is being used, how it can be improved, and how it can best continue to support global astronomy and scientific research endeavors. Please take 15 minutes to give your input before 15 May and help us shape the future of astropy.
The Offices for Science are very pleased to present the 2025 ESO Fellows. Here is an introduction to the Fellows due to start in Garching and Chile later this year.
KiDS is an ESO Public Survey carried out with the VLT Survey Telescope and OmegaCAM camera, that has imaged 1347 square degrees in four filters (u, g, r, i). Single epoch observations are provided in u,g,r. Multi-epoch imaging is provided in the i-band, with the two observations, denoted i1 and i2, typically separated by several years. KiDS was designed as a weak lensing tomography survey, with a core science driver to map and constrain the properties of the evolving large-scale matter distribution in the Universe. The median r-band 5σ limiting magnitude is 24.8 with median seeing 0.7”. Additional science cases are manifold, ranging from galaxy evolution to Milky Way structure, and from the detection of white dwarfs to high-redshift quasars.
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at Paranal is now owned and managed by INAF which processes the data and releases them via the ESO Archive. The imaging data included in this DR1 are obtained using the wide-field camera OmegaCAM in the filters: u, g, r, i, z, H_α. They span a wide range of celestial objects, from distant galaxy clusters to nearby galaxies and star clusters.
Lunch session LS6 on "The ALMA 2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade: status update" will take place on the 26th of June, during the European Astronomical Society (EAS) 2025 annual meeting in Cork (Ireland). The ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU for short) constitutes the top priority of the ALMA 2030 development roadmap.
In its efforts to promote the scientific exchange among astronomers, the Directorate for Science at ESO continues to provide support and funding for the organisation of scientific workshops in Santiago and in Garching as well as co-funding for some external workshops. Science workshops are an essential component of ESO's programmes and represent a unique opportunity to promote and foster ideas and collaborations within the scientific community.
Variability in young stellar objects (YSOs) has long been observed, both photometrically and spectroscopically, across a range of amplitudes and timescales (hours, days, and years). This variability happens at the time of formation of stars and planets, two closely linked events. With new results from recent and ongoing observational studies, it is a perfect time to bring together experts in this field to address the open questions on YSO variability.
The intricate physics governing galaxy evolution, from inflows and outflows to star formation-driven turbulence and stellar feedback, operate on small scales, often just a few parsec. For years, such detailed resolution was achievable only for the Milky Way and its immediate satellites. However, recent advancements driven by major investments for ESO facilities, including ALMA and the VLT, along with synergetic instruments such as the HST, JWST, SITELLE, VLA, and MeerKAT, have triggered a scientific revolution. In response to these exciting advancements, ESO is pleased to announce a workshop dedicated to exploring the latest developments in resolved galaxy properties and evolution. This workshop will bring together leading experts to discuss recent scientific findings and prepare for future breakthroughs in the field.
There is no science without communication and no successful scientists without good writing and presentation skills. You can do the best science that exists, if you don’t write papers about it – papers that get cited! – and if you don’t give presentations that impress people, your science will likely be ignored. Moreover, if you do not write convincing proposals that appeal to non-specialists, you won’t get observing time, nor the coveted post-doc position and certainly not the very competitive but needed grants to fund your research. Finally, as a scientist, it is your duty and privilege to communicate your science to the general public, policy makers and the media, and like all the rest, this is something that needs to be learned.
The one week-long course will allow you to learn how to get your message across in the various supports you need to use as a scientist. At the end of the week, you will be able to write more easily convincing papers and give stunning presentations. You will also learn how to deal with various publics.
Understanding the mechanisms—AGN and stellar feedback—that drive the expulsion and redistribution of baryons in collapsed structures remains a cornerstone of our paradigm for galaxy formation and evolution. These processes are simultaneously the greatest strength and the most significant challenge for theoretical models. While current models can successfully reproduce key observables, such as the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function and the hot gas content of massive clusters, they diverge considerably in their predictions.
Understanding how giant and rocky planets form and evolve, their internal structure and that of their atmosphere, represents one of the major challenges of modern astronomy, which is directly linked to the ultimate search for life by 2040. At the Horizon 2028-2030, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will shine its first light on the sky. The high angular resolution and the great collecting capacity associated with the extreme sensitivity of the instruments will allow unprecedented observations of the regions of planetary formation and exoplanetary systems. In this perspective, the ESO community has developed a key expertise on the study of the initial conditions of planetary formation, the search for exoplanets, the atmospheric characterisation of giant and rocky exoplanets, and the search for biomarkers. This community includes various international laboratories and scientists who are also heavily involved at a technical and scientific level in the construction, scientific preparation and operation of the ELT instruments, and who have the opportunity to play a key role in ensuring a global return and shared success in the exploitation of the ELT.
